Kiva Microfund: A Step Towards Alleviating Poverty

Filed in archive Information on May 4, 2010

© courtneyBolton

Kiva microfund is an institution which offers online money lending facility with an objective of alleviating poverty form the society. Kiva, a non- profit organization based at San Francisco is the first online service providing person-to-person micro-lending service.

When one browses an entrepreneurs' profiles on this site and is ready to provide a loan, then literally he are helping someone who is making real strides towards getting economic freedom and development. During the Kiva loan period (usually 6-12 months) one can enjoy receiving email journal updates and track repayments. Kiva generally works with Field Partners who are the local qualified entrepreneurs.

Kiva collects the loan amount from individual lenders and transfers it to the appropriate field partners. As soon as the entrepreneues repay their loans, the field partners remit funds back to Kiva. When the lender gets his amount back he can easily lend the same amount to some other entrepreneur and thus the cycle continues.

The increasing popularity of Kiva micro credit lies in the fact that its field partners are claimed to provide much better rates than local alternatives.